Published 11:58 pm, Monday, August 31, 2009

State Rep. Christopher Perone, D-Norwalk, had hoped this would be the year lawmakers opened up the state's health plan to people who aren't state workers, creating an insurance pool, dubbed the Healthcare Partnership, to ostensibly lower all members' costs.

And then state Sen. Joan Hartley, D-Waterbury, skipped out on a vote last Monday to override the governor's veto of the partnership bill, single-handedly thwarting her party's efforts to revive the legislation in the face of Republican opposition.

"I was surprised she chose not to vote at all," Perone said. "We knew going into the day that she had concerns about it. ... Leadership in the House had been speaking with her in the days leading up to that to see if she would consider supporting it."

Some bloggers have been less forgiving. A post on My Left Nutmeg about the Waterbury Democrat's failure to back the pooling proposal was titled "Heartless Hartley" and began with the sentence "State Senator Joan Hartley stabs the Democratic Party in the back again."

On her way out of the Capitol last Monday, Hartley, a vice chairman of the legislature's insurance and real estate committee, told a reporter she believes the Healthcare Partnership would have proven too costly. She elaborated her concerns later in the week in a detailed voice mail to The Advocate.

"The bill, I think, is riddled with problems," Hartley said, arguing there was no completed actuarial analysis of the proposal and no similar model the state could examine.

Hartley said adopting the pooling plan could also jeopardize savings negotiated with the state's current health carriers.

"Of course, no one is against trying to realize the very best opportunities for everybody -- small business, individuals, not-for-profits. But we have to go into this with our eyes open and know we can sustain it and what it is we're getting into," Hartley said, adding it would have been risky to adopt pooling during the budget crisis.

"Here we go, taking on a whole massive new program when we're $8 billion in the hole," Hartley said. "First things first, here."

House Majority Leader Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, has spearheaded the Healthcare Partnership initiative, saying it would save small businesses and municipalities money. He said he attempted to talk to Hartley about her concerns, but she never returned his phone calls.

"We never were able to have a discussion," Donovan said. "I hadn't heard from her that she was not voting for it. I was hoping she would. It had an overwhelming vote in the House, and we were hoping the Senate would follow suit. I was disappointed in her vote -- or lack of vote -- but that's a decision she made. It's important for people to know how their senator didn't vote on this important issue."

A 25-year veteran of the General Assembly, Hartley has earned one of the coveted offices in the Capitol building near the Senate chamber and a reputation as one of the more moderate Democrats.

Some of her colleagues, including state Sen. Bob Duff, D-Norwalk, have been known to occasionally retreat to her office during lengthy sessions for a break from the debate.

"I know Joan to be very passionate about what she believes, and if she feels very strongly, she's not about to compromise her principals," Duff said. "I don't like labels, but I'd say she's probably on the more conservative side."

This was not the first time in recent history Hartley has stood against her caucus. In 2007, she thwarted efforts to override Rell's veto of a bill providing $1 billion to upgrade the Connecticut State University System, arguing it was a "blank check."

State Sen. Edith Prague, D-Columbia, made no secret she is not a fan of Hartley's and was upset her colleague was not at least present to vote "no."

"She takes a walk. She isn't in the chamber," Prague said. "I know leadership was not aware she was going to be out of the chamber. I don't know if they knew definitely she was going to vote against this, because if they did, it seems they were foolish to bring the bill up in the first place."

Derek Slap, a spokesman for state Senate President Donald Williams, D-Brooklyn, in an e-mail said his boss was not interested in doing "a postmortem on the health care pooling bill" and was instead focused on passing a two-year budget.

"I will say that he supported the pooling because it would have lowered health care costs for small businesses and municipalities across the state," Slap wrote. "Senator Hartley was forthright in her concerns, but Senate leadership felt nonetheless it was still important to bring the bill up for a vote."

Hartley last Monday did support the successful override of Rell's veto of another high-profile health reform bill, the SustiNet plan, which is designed to give access to affordable health care to all state residents through a huge insurance pool.

"The loss of the partnership is a very big deal, despite SustiNet passing," Swan said. "It was going to change the relations of power in health care sooner than SustiNet will."

Swan said he does not fault Williams for attempting to override Rell's veto of the partnership in spite of Hartley. He said the Democrats who supported the measure clearly wanted to go on record, and Hartley showed "disrespect to her constituents" by refusing to vote.

Monroe Webster, first vice chairman of the Waterbury Democratic Party, said that from what he understands of the concept, the pooling bill was a good idea.

But Webster said Hartley is by no means considered a black sheep back home.